Polemics of Rachel Speght

Zusatztext ...it has considerable interest for gender historians. Klappentext Rachel Speght (1597?-?) is the first Englishwoman to identify herself! unapologetically and by name! as a polemicist and critic of contemporary gender ideology. Her tract! A Mouzell for Melastomus (1617)! is at once a spirited answer to Joseph Swetnam's very popular treatise attacking women (1617) and also a serious effort to stake women's claim to prevailing Protestant discourse of biblical exegesis! forcing it to yield a more expansive and more suitableconcept of women's nature and role. Her volume of poetry! Mortalities Memorandum! with a Dreame Prefixed (1612)! includes a long memento mori meditation and an allegorical dream vision that recounts her own rapturous encounter with learning. Both vigorously defend women's education and the encouragement ofwomen's talent. Zusammenfassung Rachel Speght (1597-?) was the first Englishwoman to identify herself as a polemicist and critic of contemporary gender ideology. This study discusses both her tract, "A Mouzell for Melastomus" (1617) and her volume of poetry, "Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed" (1612).

Product details

• Authors: Rachel Speght, Rachel Etc. Speght, Speght Rachel
• Assisted by: Barbara Kiefer Lewalski (Editor), Barbara Kiefer (Professor of English and American Literature Lewalski (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.06.1996
• EAN: 9780195086140
• ISBN: 978-0-19-508614-0
• No. of pages: 144
• Series: Women Writers in English 1350-1850; Women Writers in English 1350-; Women Writers in English 1350-1850
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / Women Authors, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: general, Gender studies: women, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Gender studies: women and girls, Literary studies: poetry and poets